New Member, Probably Not a New Topic

[AlexPKeaton]

I'm 30 hours into this. My hydrometer reading was 1.0984 and the temperature was 78F. I turned the AC down so hopefully the temperature will be better tomorrow.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; "><br style="font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; ">If I need to (or do I?) check the temperature and alcohol daily, do I need to clean &amp; sanitize my thermometer, hydrometer and spoon (to stir and keep yeast active, apparently) ever day?</span><br style="font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; ">Or, if I wash them off with water after use, will they be ok?</span>
</span>Also, per the instructions in the Mosti Mondiale "Castel de Papa" kit, I used the spoon to mix it up a little bit. I could see that the wine was starting to ferment some, but I'm hoping tomorrow to see real bubbles.</span>
</span>Thanks for the help.</span>

 

[Bert]

Welcome to the forum....Yes you need to sanitize anything that touches your wine [everytime]....stirring the first few days of fermentation helps put O2 into your wine which the yeast needs at this point.....as long as you can see or hear fermentation going on, I check about every two or three days to see how it is progressing....hope this helps...good luck

 

[Bartman]

A little patience is in order. Sometimes, the only evidence of fermentation is tiny bubbles/fizzing like a Coke. Living in Dallas in the winter does make for some wild temperature swings (65 one day, 29 the net morning). Over 80 degrees would probably give some yeast difficulty, but I have fermented in my spare bathroom (A/C vent closed off) in the summer without problems, and it was probably 82, so 78 should be ok.

If you are new to winemaking, I would check it everyday to get a feel for how rapidly the sugars drop once it gets going, especially in a warm room. You should taste a few drops when you stir to see how the juice gradually goes from super sweet to dry in the course of a few days. It can ferment to dry (&lt;1.010 or 1.020) in 4-5 days if the ambient temperature is close to 80. And yes, you should sanitize everything you put in or that comes in contact with the wine, if it touches anything else. That said, I usually rinse off my spoon with water and set by on or on top of the fermenting bucket, and rinse it again before stirring the next day. In the first week or so, when fermentation is active, you have a little more latitude because the yeast are going strong and the wine kit's yeast will almost always overcome any contaminant during that early period. Later on, the yeast are dead or dormant, so other bacteria and yucks can contaminate much more easily.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!Update us on how it is proceeding!

Can we call you McFly instead of AlexPKeaton?

 

[RickC]

Welcome to our forum.I agree with above. Sanitize everything every time. Here's a lazy man suggestion. I use one of thefood grade plastic spoonsbought at FVWthat is short enough to leave in the bucket with the lid onoreven snapped down. Sanitize before usingand just leave it in. Sanitize your hands and grabthe top of the spoonsitting just above the top of the must when you need to give it a stir. If you progress to kits with skins or grape pack you will need to stir those 2 times per day.


What I normally experience is beginning of fizzing at 24 hours and by 48 a goodhead of foam.

 

[Wade E]

Yes you need to sanitize everything. Me, as long as its starts fermenting good and if there is no fruits in there (Just Juice) then I snap the lid shut with airlock and dont even bother it for 2 weeks. If it has fruit in there then I open at least once daily and push the fruit under the liquid and give it a good stir to make sure the fruit towards the middle gets good exposure to the fluids otherwise mold can form on top of that fruit and your wine will go bad. Once its near the ends like at 1.020 I snap the lid shut with fruit in there and every day I just slosh the bucket around good to get the fruit wet but keep that blanket of C02 on top of the wine. I always ferment to dry in bucket despite whatever the instructions say. Racking early can leave too much viable yeast behind resulting in a struggle for the little bit of yeast left to do the job at hand. 1 word of caution when doing a Mosti Mondiale kit, do not rack at 1.040 into a carboy unless you have a spare vessel to hold back like 1/2 gallon in. The problem with this method is that the wine is still fermenting violently and will almost always blow right up your carboy as there just isnt enough headroom in there. So its your choice, do it the way I and many others do, rack it at more like 1.020, or rack per instructions but put some in a another vessel like a 1 gallon jug. Those smaller jugs take either a #6 or #6.5 size rubber bung to except airlock, both will work. Hope that helps you and welcome to our site.

 

[AlexPKeaton]

Great replies - and yes, feel free to call me whatever you like - I'm sure I've been called worse
I've read that some people put their sanitizer in a spray bottle. Here's what how I plan on cleaning/sanitizing my tools going forward:
1. Make 1 gallon of cleansing agent - put tools in (or with spoon, hand wash)2. Dry off with paper towels3. Spray sanitizer on clean tools4. Wipe with paper towels5. Rinse tools after use
Sorry if this is too specific/not a good question - I just want to make sure that I'm not ruining the whole thing.
Temperature was lower today at 74 and the hydrometer read about 1.084, so hopefully those yeast are hard at work. I'll probably check these numbers daily for a while because I'm a numbers dork to begin with.
Thanks again everyone

 

[Wade E]

As long as you wipe the stuff off good and wipe them down with sanitizer first you can probably the cleanser part before use unless you see something had spilled on it or its been left exposed for a long time. I pretty much just spray it with k-meta and let it sit a few minuets and wipe down with paper towel and use. Another thing that is good if you have is a primary bucket with a g;lass bottle of the solution in it and you can keep your corks, and anything not metal in there and it will all stay sanitized and ready to use. The gases to much more work then the actual liquid does, so all your hoses and stuff are ready.